Stalin's reign of terror was far-reaching. After 6 decades, relatives of victims of the Soviet regime are able to give proper burial to the bodies of their loved ones.
Stories about the recovery of the Soviet Union's victims is becoming regular news. The discovery of mass graves both opens old wounds and allows for some modicum of healing for those who lost relatives and friends to state-sponsored terror.
In Moscow, a construction project unearthed hidden bodies. Hundreds of miles away, the site of the two missing Romanov bodies was determined after decades of speculation. Recently, near Kiev, bodies in a mass grave were reburied after having been "dumped" there 60 years ago. No doubt, more mass graves will be discovered, more memorials will be erected, and acknowledgement of Stalin's crimes will broaden. Even decades later, the cruelty of the Soviet Union's modus operandi is immeasurable.
Those who were not outright murdered by secret police or other individuals were murdered by proxy. Famines - either natural or manmade - killed a great many. Inhabitants of the Gulag prison/labor camps were doomed to experience conditions that often lead to death. Some survivors still don't know how their loved ones perished, and others are just now discovering that they ended up in mass graves like the one in Ukraine.
